There was only one season of Heroes. It was a great show that knew when to call it quits and didn’t go beyond that first season and I don’t care what you say otherwise.

Previously, I'd only watched the final season and I generally enjoyed it. But it's off to a rough start. Not sure we're going to push ahead with it.

Joking aside, I love the first season of Heroes. The characters were compelling, the storylines intersected in fun ways and brought everybody together in various ways that made it all feel interconnected, you had strong performances by talented actors, and one hell of a main villain.

It just all fell to crap after that first season, I recommend sticking with it, but treating the season one finale as a series finale.

Project #74: L.A. Confidential

Such a sharp script and so well-executed on all fronts. Maybe not flawless, but if you have to work against the experience to catch them... are they really there?

We both enjoyed this one.

LOLing at my past comment:
Dear Season 2, what you gave us was NOT what I meant. I guess you proved my point.

Project #75: Face/Off

Another success with him and it is as absurd and over the top as you remember (or would guess if you've never seen it). The performances keep the insanity locked in until it's finally over and everything is uncanny because you're looking at the hero triumphant, but he's wearing the villain's face. Bonkers in the best way. John Woo at 11.

Just finished my annual Guy Fawkes night viewing of V for Vendetta.
Man, I will always love that movie. Hugo Weaving is amazing.

I really loved the comics but I enjoy the movie because they did about as good an adaptation as could be done.
That and my wife doesn't read comics but we watch the movie together.

I got around to finishing Agatha All Along. I don't want to be too critical of this show: I liked it. It had some good moments of dialogue. Characters were good and well-acted. Production design was great. It isn't embarrassing in the way Secret Invasion was.

It is definitely not as good as some critics/reviewers/fans are trying to sell it. It comes close to being excellent, but the #1 problem I have with the writing is this: There are (far too) many missing pieces of plot and character development that fans are going to (want to) "head canon" to explain how/why certain emotional beats were shown.

I'm not going to list all the (what I see as) missing pieces, because I think a rather casual fan (and/or an imaginative fan) can get more enjoyment than I...if they are predisposed to enjoy what they got. The most I'll say is that I think there is only one player in the ensemble that actually gets a narrative arc (or a sort), and there is another who almost does... but that arc comes in the form of a not-so-original ho-hum puzzle box episode.

I actually liked the plot... and the chosen emotional beats... so it isn't like I think the writers room hit Seasons 6+ of The Flash levels of bad. It's more like "ok, so these (pick any two) characters supposedly have crossed paths... so why am I not being shown any of it?"

Project #76: Joe vs the Volcano

Maybe my favorite movie depending on the day you ask me. Always in my top 2. He enjoyed most of it. I always enjoy all of it. Even spotted another thing that I hadn't seen (possibly because this was my first experience with the blu-ray/HD level). A delight and I'll be happy to explain why everyone is wrong about it to anyone who lets me get started.

This film released at exactly the wrong time for me, but when I caught it later on VHS I really enjoyed it. I'm not a great fan of The Academy Award Winning/Seeking roles of Tom Hanks... I have nothing against the guy, but this is the sort of film that I think he excelled in. I think it is also peak Meg Ryan.

I didn’t think an Only Murders in the Building finale could break my heart as much as season 3’s did. I have now been proven wrong. My gosh, this show though.

Thelma (2024) was a really nice little movie. Everyone feels authentic.

Not actually an action movie, but you see so many reconfigured tropes that it is fun on that level, too.

The Penguin was excellent across the board. For a story with almost no one to cheer for, it somehow kept me engaged.

I feel like making this very specific comment: The eight episode run included two major flashback episodes, as well as a third flashback that takes up less narrative space. I've been rather critical about limited run TV series that burn screen time on flashbacks, but these didn't bother me. I think the difference in The Penguin (as opposed to The Acolyte, Agatha All Along) is that in the Penguin the flashbacks are informing the audience about certain aspects of the already fully-formed characters and not simply telling important plot points (out of order) or trying to inject some character traits into otherwise unformed characters.

Put another way: In The Penguin, the flashbacks are providing more narrative nuance. In The Acolyte the creative team was trying to either/both drop us part-way into a dull story hoping to engage us or/and try to Rashomon the story into something clever(*1). The Penguin story was interesting without the flashbacks. The MCU stuff typically does flashbacks to explain plot points the audience didn't see but needs to know for the plot to make any sense. I think we could argue over if any of the Penguin flashbacks explain a plot point, but I see them as providing character insights.

(*1) The Acolyte would have been more interesting (to me) if it had simply built to the "you can be a bad guy and get a happy ending" and avoided the "the good guys may never have had your best interests in heart... even though you already know that without us having to drive it home" vibe. I like how it ended, I just wish the story had been told in order, with at least one of the characters having more agency along the way.

For comic fans: The Penguin does show Gotham City as a place that probably could use a Batman.

Took a 2-week break from the project to watch the latest season of Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Not enough highlights for me. Not bad or anything, but I definitely wanted more from them at this stage in the game. Like they're starting to look too old to be this utterly insane, but in the grounded way they insist on maintaining and I think it's time to let it rip for way more cartoonish insanity. We'll see what next year brings, I suppose. It's wild that it's such a long-running show.

Transformers One is really good. I don't mean it's good for a Transformers movie or good compared to Michael Bay's movies. It is genuinely really good. It's a shame it didn't do better but not surprising. It's marketing was almost non-existent, limited trailers that gave a vastly different tone than the one of the movie itself.